Concealed carry bill heads to Walker for signature

MADISON — Dylan Fredericks doesn’t carry a gun, but he plans to after Gov. Scott Walker signs into law legislation making it legal to carry concealed weapons in Wisconsin.

And the employee of PT Firearms in Cross Plains suspects he’s not alone.

“We’ve really seen an uptick in business,” he said. “The past week we’ve probably sold about 15 different guns.“

But Matt Havighurst of Madison said he doesn’t like the bill “at all.“

Havighurst, 41, who was playing with his 3-year-old son, Noah, at the lakeshore at James Madison Park said if the measure passes, the government should send out free signs saying “no guns allowed” to anyone who doesn’t want them on their premises.

“What are you going to do at a park?” he said of such signs. “Put them all over at every entrance?“
The opposite reactions of Fredericks and Havighurst mirrored those debated Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday as the concealed carry bill moved closer to being law.

The GOP-controlled Assembly approved the bill on a bipartisan vote of 68-27.